1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer software. More specifically, the present invention relates to a predictive material editor.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term computer aided design (CAD) refers to a broad variety of computer-based tools used by architects, engineers, animators, video game designers, and other graphics and design professionals. CAD applications may be used to construct computer models or drawings representing virtually any imaginable two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) construct. Initially, such a construct is defined in part by the regions making up the surface of that construct. A rendering application may be used to add detail to the construct by mapping material texture maps onto various regions of the construct.
Material texture maps, or materials, can be defined according to a variety of parameters, generally related to the type of material represented. For example, a glass material may be defined in part by a reflectivity parameter, while a concrete material may be defined in part by a coarseness parameter. A user of a rendering application may change the values of some or all of these parameters to modify the physically and/or display characteristics of the rendered material. Users of various rendering applications may apply materials to 2D or 3D constructs in different ways according to their specific needs. For example, an architect may use a hardwood floor material as an indoor floor surface and a grass material as an outdoor floor surface; alternatively, a video game designer may use either material for a variety of purposes within a virtual environment.
A problem with current approaches for presenting a user interfaces (UI) for manipulating graphics materials or texture maps in graphics rendering applications is that users without an extensive rendering background have difficulty manipulating the UIs. These users are generally not familiar with the functionality of the underlying rendering engine and may have different levels of understanding and expertise with respect to graphics rendering. Additionally, different users may find certain properties of graphics materials to be relevant and other materials to be irrelevant. For example, in the context of lighting, an architect and a video game designer may have very different understandings of lighting effects. The architect may think about lights in terms of the physical properties of lights (e.g., watts, color temperature, or lumens); whereas, the video game designer may view light as simply the opposite of dark and may not think about the physical properties.
As the foregoing illustrates, there remains a need in the art for a material editor that overcomes one or more of the problems set forth above.